I know that I am supposed to be grateful.

I know that a conversation, long overdue, is finally beginning. 

I recognize that each step to inclusion and freedom is critical.

Yet, when I see the outpouring of people supporting the idea that Black Lives Matter, my heart soars even as my spirit aches.

That tender pain is because this fight or conversation is literally to convince people that black lives matter – that we as beings are worthy of living. That we have to protest and give speeches to make the point that our lives matter is, for me, incredibly painful.

How, after we believed we had made so much progress, can we still be trying to convince the nation that our lives matter?

How do we prepare our children for a world in which we are still convincing them that our lives matter?

How do we build self-worth when we have to push a nation to see that our lives matter?

How do we breathe?

We teach inclusion in our organizations. We talk of equality and equity and of biases – conscious and unconscious.  Yet, as the protestors have shown us, we cannot truly move forward, at work or at home, if we cannot agree on one fundamental fact.

Black lives do matter – not because we are different, but because we are not.